Nigeria's 1914 Amalgamation: A Historical Mistake?

 By Adetula David

Sometimes in 1980, Nnamdi Azikwe somewhat shifted grounds on his ‘Ideology for Nigeria' saying “we must dig deep from our roots to discover the secret of successful co-existence.” This definately showed the pant for a true federal state, though coming late but that was necessary to give a dose of recuperation to our nation's unity that had repeatedly suffered attacks from eminent personalities among many other Nigerians.



I will like to start this article by drawing the attention of everyone to a well known fact; Many nations of the world today  were formed as a result of wars and other unsuitable acquisition processes but still, all these did not lead to the failure of those nations or rather justify any attempt by groups or states at jeopardizing their sovereignty. A very lucid example of this was how Texas, USA came to being.


On the contrary, Nigeria had a very peaceful annexation process if you ask me, whereby only signed documents brought the northern and southern protectorates together with the Lagos colony in 1914. What I am driving at here is that, Nigerians should be grateful and see objectively beyond their mindsets and what their leaders and elders have made them to believe over the years about their amalgamation. We need to start to see reasons to admit that the 1914 amalgamation is one of the best things that happened to us.


Nigeria will celebrate her 100th year of glorious existence come next year, this is undoubtedly one of any feat any nation will be glad to celebrate. This is more reason why a discussion like this at this time is necessary to address some begging and deterring issues before we embark on another centenary journey.


It is no new analysis from various historical analysts and pundits that our amalgamation was falsely founded. They blame the past and present problems facing Nigeria on this foundation and many went as far as prescribing disintegration as the only cure to our problems. All these simply based on their understanding of the situation.


I once again crave the indulgence of my esteemed readers to kindly set aside, at least for this time whatsoever stance you maintain on this topic as we peruse and logically dissect it and I do hope we both reach a common ground at the end.


Without conceding to the fallacy that the 1914 amalgamation is a historical mistake, I will liken the birth of Nigeria to that of a man who was brought into existence as a result of a vicious rape incidence. After conception, the pregnancy of this man was not aborted despite the known unpalatable circumstances surrounding it and probable external influences against it. The baby was delivered, can we say that baby was a mistake? This baby grew up and went past the odds of life to become a comfortable man who can fern for himself and even give to people. Can we still say this man is a mistake? Sincerely NO! So also our dear nation Nigeria. She is no mistake at all!


I still find it very difficult to dissuade my thinking faculty from allowing me point accusing fingers at some of our past and present leaders who have told us nothing but falsehood and have given us continued reasons why a country called Nigeria should not exist anymore without even feeding us with the benefits we stand to enjoy as a united nation.


Our population in the black continent has earned us the incontestable title of the Giant of Africa. This has in many ways brought a lot of benefits to our land. As we all know that the population size of a nation goes a long way in determining the commanded respect she enjoys from other countries of the world, even in important international decision making processes. Nigeria has been an unrivaled beneficiary of this since her existence.


The 1914 marriage has also helped us in creating an abundant manpower base, courtesy of the many ethinicities we have got. This abundant manpower is obvious in various vital sectors of our economy. Among which we have the security and sport sectors. Imagine the combination of the doggedness of the Hausas with the intelligence of the yorubas, now complemented by the skills of the Igbos in our military, wao! what a great military set up we have got! Likewise in the sports arena. How about the available numerous tourist centres for both nationals and international citizens to explore from? This cannot be possible if not for an amalgamated Nigeria.


The grace to gather the erudite from various angles of the nation for the best representation and government also lay credence to the beauty of our diversity. All these and many other advantages are crusted in the amalgamated nation of ours.


Having mentioned the advantages of a nation like Nigeria as a result of its amalgamation, it will be a gross show of ignorance on my path if i do not acknowledge the fact that Nigeria as a nation is been faced with challenges, just like any other nation around the globe but we will be doing a grave injustice to ourselves and our colonial masters if we say our compounded problems of the past and present is as a result of the 1914 amalgamation. A very huge injustice!


The peculiarity of this article will not permit me to fully implicate our leaders and ignorant citizens as the major causes of our misfortunes so far. Someone may want to say, how about the ethnic clashes here and there? Let me say here that some of those clashes started out as minor misunderstandings that could have been resolved by our leaders before they were wide blown if truly they had the unity of our beloved nation at heart, but all they do is to blame a marriage of heterogeneous people of a hundred years old. Is that not unpatriotic? They forgot clashes can even be more violent in a homogeneous setting if the necessary measures are not put in place.


Take for instance a homogeneous nation like Somalia, a country regarded as a big family with almost a single tribe. Somalia only has dents of few other minor tribes. A country where 99.9% of her citizens practice thesame religion, yet, Somalia can be said to be a very good example of a failed nation. Can we still blame their woes on heterogeneity? Absolutely No! Therefore, I want us to look beyond the 1914 amalgamation as the reason for our setbacks and problems.


Truly, our diversity if not properly harnessed and continually encouraged to its positive side, there could be problem and this is the instance we find ourselves atimes. Sovereign National Conferences should be a routine exercise in a very heterogeneous nation like Nigeria. By so doing, no tribe or group will feel marginalized in any way. So also, we get to know our differences and take advantage of it to build a more united and stronger nation.


With all sense of humility and respect, I want to say that Nigeria is greater than anyone of us, even the president and at thesame time, Nigeria belongs to all of us. So I believe every spirited efforts at encouraging her existence and sovereignty should be unanimously appreciated and jealously promoted, no matter the challenges we are faced with at the moment.


As I conclude, permit me to reinstate my position that the 1914 amalgamation is not a historical mistake in any way but a clad blessing to us all. Thank you!



REFERENCES

Nigeria: The mistake of 1914 By Y! Editor (21/06/2012)
http://www.ynaija.com/nigeria-the-mistake-of-1914/

Middle East Policy Council – Muslim Populations Worldwide
http://web.archive.org/web/20061214023655/http://www.mepc.org/workshops/popstat.asp

The World Factbook. Langley, Virginia: Centra Intelligence Agency.
http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html

Nairaland Interschool Debate

Strike: A Wrong Approach To Nigeria's Educational Problems(Volume 2)

By ADETULA DAVID
Having talked about the expensive effects of strikes on our educational system in Nigeria, i won't shy away from also discussing the benefits these incessant strikes may accrue ONLY if successfully geared towards its intention that masses were made to believe. Amongst the benefits are better infrastructures in our schools, improved welfare packages for the workers in the academia thereby making teaching pleasureable to the teaching staffs and also indirectly help in impacting the desired and required knowledge on the students but what most people don't understand is that there are other better ways to address the educational problems in Nigeria other than the popular strikes.

The major protagonists of strikes in our schools, the government workers in the schools are not just multi-directional in their approach. They are always mono-strategic in their mechanism to articulate their demands, a strategy that is not only impotently archaic but also has been found not effective in our black continent to a very large extent. Not even only that, the touted genuineness of their agitations and action is quite questionable. If truly strikes could rescue the Nigerian educational system, then our institutions should by now be one of the best in the world. If the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for about thirty(30) months in the past ten years and we are still where we are today, then it obviously means it is a wrong approach to Nigeria's educational problems.

Permit me to digress a little please, i keep asking myself that if our fore-fathers could achieve independence for our dear Nigeria without bloodshed as it was the case in many countries, then, why is it so difficult for this  generation to try another better method to approach our educational problems other than the incessant strikes which is the popular and non-effective usual way? Srike is just been counter-productive and unhealthy for our education!


At this point, i am more than sure without mincing words that it is now very conspicuous that the dangers incessant strike actions pose to our education and even on the economic life of our nation both in the short-run and long-run outweigh its benefits. I hereby plead with the stakeholders of this sector; the workers, governments, students and others to let us come to this realization that strike is not the right approach to our problems. I want us to engage more practicable and effective ways to tackle the problems in our education that will ensure the much anticipated better face for it rather than the accumulating damages the sector suffer.

Dialogue remains a very viable and effective tool in this instance. The successful progression recorded in many areas of life today cannot be applauded without stating that they were achieved through dialogue, round table conferences and other diplomatic avenues. More importantly, sueing the erring government to a law court is another viable way i am sure will diplomatically curtail the aggravating danger of strike in our educational system if given a trial.

I implore the governments at all level to also try as much as possible to help realize this feat; quality education. A very good policy has been 'prescribed' by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation(UNESCO) to help address the problems we are facing in our education sector most especially in Africa. This allows at least 26% of the nations annual budgetary allocation go to the education sector as against the 9% currently committed to it in Nigeria. {2}

Adoption of this will go a very long way in salvaging the current disposition and also help to achieve the greatness we crave for. This is very possible in Nigeria if our leaders are truly dedicated to the transformation project. Not also leaving out the work forces in the sector, the likes of ASUU, ASUP, COEASU, NASU, SSANU and so many others, i want to charge them to be more dedicated to their duties, proving critics wrong and being sincere in their constructive and preventive demands.

The students have over the years shown resilience and even solidarity to struggles that were aimed at solely benefitting the workers, same gesture should be reciprocated in hard times when the students are faced with oppression and problems beyond their limit. I therefore plead with the work forces not to repay the students' patriotism at this time with damaging strike actions.

I therefore reinstate that strike is a wrong approach to Nigeria's educational problems.



REFERENCES:

1. DailyPost Nigeria online Newspaper,
ASUU strike: ‘Unplanned breaks affect students’
11th December, 2011
http://dailypost.com.ng/2011/12/11/asuu-strike-‘unplanned-breaks-affect-students’/

2. FinIntell News,
2013 Budget Analysis
http://www.myfinancialintelligence.com/banking-and-finance/2013-budget-analysis

Strike: A Wrong Approach To Nigeria's Educational Problems (Volume 1)

By Adetula David

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said and i quote; "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that"


Strike is defined by Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary as the refusal to work as a protest. The online free encyclopedia, Wikipedia put it in a more refined way by saying, strike action is work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. It goes further to say, a strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. The strike discussed in this piece is not different from the fore-mentioned. Its just that it is restrained to the educational sector of Nigeria. Some Nigerians however described strike as an annual festival whereby students are not allowed to go to school. To a very large extent, the defination is right as it has become a 'norm' for the occurrence of work halt in at least once in a section in the education sector in the country within the twelve months in a calendar year.


Strike action definately has its pros and cons which i am going to critically analyse in course of this piece. However, this write-up is intended to show reasons and logically conclude that strike is a wrong approach to the educational problems in our dear nation Nigeria as it is widely believed by many.


When a strike is initiated by the work force, it is always known to be a fierce battle between the employer and the employees; the government and the association under which the workers are registered. The 'suffering grass' whenever these two elephants clash are the students who are directly at the receiving end of the imbroglio. Thus, leaving several damages on the students whenever such occurs.


Among several effects of strike include time wastage and unnecessary delays. The most saddening aspect of the strike action atimes is that the reason why it is being initiated is not really worth it. Thereby, leading to a battered academic calendar. A disrupted academic calendar definately gives birth to the shrinking of activities when the school resumes in order to meet the set target for that session. This affects the students adversely in terms of their performances in tests and exams since they never expected such changes. Not only this, unemployment is a 'time-bomb' for graduates that were repeatedly affected by strike during their student days. This is caused by their inability to meet up with the set requirements. Most jobs these days are tied to age limit, so graduates that have overstayed mostly owing to no fault of theirs, become too old for jobs of their dream. This is quite pathetic!


Students engagement in non-fruitful and criminal activities have been the case during strikes. Like the popular adage says "an idle mind is the devil's workshop" some students are drawn into nefarious acts during this period which are capable of destroying them and unleashing terror on the peace of the nation. Aside this, some students become social network veterans, some turn into statues of idleness, bunch of parrots, backbitters, gossipers and busy bodies while some turn themselves into sleeping bags as if been bitten by tse-tse fly. They eat as if life is all about eating. This set of students you see in schools after the strike with voluminous body mass blessed with unnecessary fats(perhaps with no shape), all these against their wishes.


The  Loss of  credibility is a grave danger applicable to our schools as a result of incessant strikes. Its quite unfortunate these days that only few foreigners will prefer to send their wards to study here in Nigeria as a result of the back drops from strikes while we move our children en-mass to schools abroad thereby exporting the fund that is supposed to be expended locally to economically add values to our system. What about the psychological effects of strike on students? A psychologist and lecturer, Department of Educational Foundation, University of Lagos, Dr Sola Aletan explained that the unplanned breaks definately affect students negatively. He compared this scenario to when an athlete running a 400metres race is abruptly stopped when he started the race, he said such situation affects the athlete greatly and will take time for him/her to regain his/her speed and confidence as it was levelled before. Same thing applies to students that are sent away from schools due to strike.{1} These and many other damping effects of strike are what students are exposed to.


Funny enough, the bad effects of strikes are not 'enjoyed' only by students that have been deprived of their right to education, the striking workers too share part of the experience. Workers feel the nostalgia with a tinge of guilt, arising from shrinked responsibilities. Though thesame work force called for the strike, but i can tell you that not all its members are always in full support of the action. Also, academic workers who are still in their 'evolving process' too get affected during strikes. Example of this are the postgraduate students that lecture in universities. ASUU strike also grounds their study.


Unfortunately, no one is talking about the poor masses that worked in the closed environment. I mean the motorcyclists, drivers, traders, tailors, carpenters and others that make ends meet by their activities in the academia. Most of these people are below-average Nigerians that have family members who look up to them to survive owing to the penny they get from their toil in the now closed academic community. Now subjected to unemployment and poverty that will not even be make-up for when the strike is over unlike in the case of the academic workers that get paid even when they refuse to work. Too bad!


Unknowingly, even the erring government that has failed to accede to the demands of these workers is not safe too from the impasse. Prof. Umukoro of Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan wrote in one of his articles that was featured in The Guardian Newspaper dated Wed. Oct. 21, 2009 that "no nation anywhere in the world can rise above the quality of its tertiary education. Show me your universities, and I shall tell you what type of nation you are", this clearly emphasizes the importance of an academic calendar devoid of unnecessary breaks. All sectors of our national life are largely dependent on education. The future of the nation are the young sharps currently in schools and as such, the kind of education policies put in place now dictate the quality of life experienced and their performances later on when they spread to all sectors of the economy thereby re-affirming the centrality of education to national development. The effects of strike will obviously jeopardize the dream of having a great posterity who will be better leaders. This long-term effect on the nation is unfortunately not critically assessed.


To be continued...